Q: Do you guys still think that race is a HUGE factor when it comes to Box office?

A: No, I don't think race was ever a huge factor when it comes to actual Box Office. It's not like Will Smith movies would make twice as much money if he were white. Race is a much bigger factor when it comes to making the movie, from the creation of great villains to adapt in the first palce, to writing storylines that aren't colored by a writer's perception of that race, to finding filmmakers who believe in and love the character, to executives who are willing to put big money down despite the relatively minor factor that race plays on the box office and the major factor it plays in actually getting a good movie in the can.

Fast and Furious, in addition to being an ensemble with strong characters of virtually every ethnicity (which is part of why it makes more WW than it does in NA), is a relatively cheap action movie, and grew to get to the place it is now. Few sfx needed. No genre to turn off people who think they like realistic things. I mean, it's cars. Who honestly doesn't like hot cars?

But with Black Panther, when you add the race issue, and the stuff that comes with it, and add that to the normal genre challenge... you have an issue, primarily one of perception, but an issue nonetheless.